Last year at this time, I was living at Mount Michael Abby in Elkhorn, Neb. The Benedictine monks were kind enough to let me come and be a part of their community. It is a week I will never forget. My ...

How would you explain monasticism to Protestants who feel Christians should be out in the world, seeking to convert lost souls? To them, monks/nuns are hiding from society’s ills, not helping to mend ...

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a co-founder of Rutba House, a New Monastic community in Durham, NC. He is also author of several books, two of which, The Wisdom of Stability and a contemporary ...

Part two of a three-part series. The dwindling number of vocations to priesthood, religious orders and monastic life make it clear that traditional religious life no longer speaks to newer generations ...

The monastic alternative, at least in the West, has become so deeply unfashionable that most people no longer consider the possibility, but there is, at least to me, something deeply appealing about ...

When Judith Valente, a Benedictine oblate, leads contemplative retreats both online and in monasteries around the country, she has been noticing that laypeople — whether Catholic or ...

This is part one of a series. Although the term "new monasticism" has been floating around ether of the contemplative world for several decades, it has remained difficult to define. Catholic ...

Christian monks once saved the cultural treasures of the western world from barbarian invasions, and now a major four-day conference in Rome is examining how modern culture affects monasticism. “We’ve ...

We were about a half mile from the monastery, hoeing weeds out of the pumpkin patch. The late-June sun of Iowa beat down upon Hal and me, and sweat streamed down our faces. Our shirts and shoes were ...

The monastic alternative, at least in the West, has become so deeply unfashionable that most people no longer consider the possibility, but there is, at least to me, something deeply appealing about ...